The Cost of a Promise Broken
by dancer4813
Summary: Percy made a promise to his mother, a promise to keep his sister safe during her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.


**A/N: This is for **_**Candid423**_**'s Brotherly Instincts Competition. I had this idea and just _needed_ to write it. It's an EXTREMELY ANGSTY Percy/Ginny fic based during the Chamber of Secrets. Again, it's got gobs and gobs of angst. So if you're looking for a happy story, this one is NOT for you. Anyway, enjoy:_  
_**

**The Cost of a Promise Broken**

He had tried. Really, he had.

_Make her feel welcome_. His mother had said in the secret of his bedroom, not wanting his younger brothers to hear. For he alone was responsible, he alone could be trusted with the responsibility of keeping her safe. _Keep her safe. _His mother said, unshed tears glistening in her eyes. _Keep my little girl safe._

And he had promised. And, eager to write another letter to Penelope, left his mother to quickly dry her tears and hurry off to make dinner.

* * *

He had finally calmed his mother down when she could not find her youngest son and Harry, Harry Potter no less, on Platform 9 ¾. He had assured her that they had only hurried to get on the train and since they were twelve, had been so excited that they had practically _needed_ to see their friends. She finally just nodded and sighed when the train whistle blew, marking 11:00.

No time was spent trying to find his delinquent brother along with his best friend and he hurried off to find Penelope's compartment, where he could hopefully spend a good few hours.

He hadn't noticed his sister scribbling in the black diary they had 'needed' to return home to get, making them nearly miss the train.

* * *

He made sure she had a friend or two, then turned to his own business.

The year would be filled with secluded hours with 'Penny' during prefect rounds (that no one could know about, or else he'd have no chance at Head Boy the next year) and studying for NEWTS the following year. Ginny had been put on the back burner and nothing broke through his haze until October.

* * *

_Has she always been so pale_? He asked himself, seeing his sister's ghostly-looking face in the hallway. He would have told her to go outside, get some sun, but he had seen her on the grounds plenty, usually walking by Hagrid's cabin, one time with feathers on her robes. He had wondered why she had pet Hagrid's chickens, but pushed it out of his mind.

_Are you sick?_ He had asked, worried in spite of himself. She glared at him, brown eyes flashing dangerously, but he ignored them. _No!_ She had said furiously.

He made her drink some Pepperup Potion from Madam Pomfery anyway. For he needed to fulfill his duty.

* * *

A cat had been attacked. Filch's cat.

Ginny had been distraught, moping around. Ron had mentioned how it was all for the better, thereby making it worse. He'd told his youngest brother off, saying how he didn't want to hear a thing more about the caretaker's cat and threatened to put him in detention if he continued insulting Hogwart's faculty.

But he didn't see past his sister's worried expression, to the dark circles under her eyes, to the way she flinched when the attacker was mentioned. He had no idea, but he had fulfilled his duty. Or so he thought.

* * *

Colin Creevy, a boy from his own house, had been attacked.

Ginny and all the other first years were scared witless. One of their own had been Petrified.

He was furious with his twin brothers and how they were messing about with the whole thing. Fred and George were jumping out hither and thither in ridiculous outfits, frightening the first years senseless.

_Stop that this instant!_ He had commanded, more times than he could count. _Can't you see they're afraid?_ But he couldn't see just how afraid she was.

They had only relented when he threatened to write to his mother about his sister having nightmares about their antics.

He had been right about the nightmares, but it wasn't from her brothers and their messing around.

* * *

She had walked in on them. In on them _kissing_ no less!

Penny had left in embarrassment and he was angry at his sister, ready to give her detention, until he saw the spark of mirth in her eyes that had been absent for most of the year. He couldn't resist smiling at his own predicament and sufficed for begging her not to tell his twin brothers.

* * *

January was a good month. He and Penny were getting very close relationship-wise, Ginny was looking happier than ever, and no more attacks had been recorded after the ones on Justin Finch-Fletchly and Nearly Headless Nick.

February could have been better. Valentine's Day was almost a disaster. He had simply wanted to give Penny a nice card, but had been unable to come up with anything that sounded heartfelt. Instead he had spelled her a simple rose that changed colors with the moon.

She seemed to like it.

The idiot Professor Lockhart had practically destroyed the reputation of the school with his "card-carrying cupids", but to top it all off he discovered that his little sister had sent a Valentine to Harry Potter. With one of the gnomes as well!

He meant to give her a good talking to, but forgot as he hurried off to his NEWT-level Charms class, already held up by the outrageous commotion in the corridor between said Potter and the young Malfoy. _Oh well, it's the thought that counts anyway._

* * *

Penny, _his_ Penny had been attacked and he was in shock. Despite what everyone said, that he was upset because she was a fellow prefect, it only partially true. She was also the only one he had ever met who could look past the bookish exterior and see the real Percy.

And in his despair he noticed not his sister's constant shivers, subdued demeanor, dropping grades, pale face and wary looks his way. He hadn't noticed her look of guilt, of responsibility for his petrified love.

* * *

He was dead tired from an all-night patrol the evening before and trudged into the Great Hall just as McGonagall announced that the Mandrake Draft was nearly ready, that those who were Petrified could be restored to full health.

Feeling much more cheerful, he glanced around for a seat and saw his sister was finished.

"If you've finished eating, I'll take that seat, Ginny. I'm starving, I've only just come off patrol duty."

And she scurried away quickly, a frightened look on her face. But he hadn't seen it. He had overlooked her pale and quaking figure, a figure that could have given its secret, but was interrupted in the charge.

Ron was angry and he couldn't see why, but when he mentioned _"going to tell us something important"_ he snapped to attention, sleepiness gone. All he had done to protect her and she was about to spill his relationship to the whole family, break his trust in a single instant.

_And a young, red-headed girl hissed a command, opening a tunnel that went down, down beneath the school; down, down to a possible doom._

* * *

He gazed down at the pale form of his sister on one of the Hospital Wing beds, tears coming to his eyes as he remembered the confusion, fear, guilt and pain of the last few hours. Not only had his two youngest siblings disappeared suddenly, but his sister had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets. And his brother had followed.

The news had come from his tearful, though usually stern, Head of House. And though she said nothing of it, he had heard the implication: _Ginny would most likely not survive the night._

He had felt broken, utterly spent. His parents had come, but he had hardly noticed them. His words to his mother before the school year came back to haunt him: I promise.

But he had broken the promise, failed in his duty. And here he stood, looking at his sister who had been through far too much at age eleven, that anyone should have to go through ever.

She had been possessed by_ Lord Voldemort_. The epitome of evil, the bringer of death, destruction and fear. Of pain, loss and hurt. And he had not seen it, done nothing to stop it, though the signs were made clear.

Collapsing into the chair by her bedside, he dropped his head in his hands and let the tears flow thick and fast through his fingers. His own idiocy and pride had almost been the death of his only sister.

_I'm so sorry_. He cried, more than a few times, even though she could hear none of them in her magicked sleep. _I wish I could try again._

_He_ had allowed it to happen.

_He_ had been blinded.

_He_ had ignored the warnings.

And _his_ sister had nearly paid the price.

Percy had made a promise.

Percy thought he had tried.

Percy had made a mistake.

He was_ wrong_.

He _failed_ in his duty.

He _broke_ his promise.

And Ginny had nearly been the price of his failure. Only saved by the Wizarding World's Savior and his little brother.

He had broken a _promise_. And nearly broke his family to pieces.

~_Fin_~


End file.
